Iraqi Security Forces Foil Several Terrorist Plots against Pilgrims in Baghdad

Rasa - The Iraqi security forces have defused several terrorist plots against the pilgrims who were visiting the country to participate in Arbaeen ceremonies (40th day of mourning for Imam Hossein after he was martyred on the day of Ashoura over 13 centuries ago).

News ID: 434712

Date: 11 November 2017 - 23:27

RNA - "The Iraqi security forces stopped two bomb-laden cars in al-Dorah and identified and arrested two suicide bombers. Also 10 terrorists who sought to carry out operations in al-Rashediyeh region were identified and arrested," commander of Baghdad operations General Jalil al-Rubai'ei was quoted by the Arabic-language Baghdad al-Youm newspaper as saying in a press conference on Saturday.

Noting that the Iraqi security forces also identified a terrorist gang who had come from Mosul and sought to target the pilgrims in al-Karradeh region, he said, "In addition, the operations by several bomb-laden cars and suicide bombers who wanted to target the pilgrims in Baghdad were all foiled."

Millions of Muslims from different world states who rallied from the city of Najaf to the city of Karbala arrived in Karbala city on Friday to mark the Arbaeen.

Muslims from across the world, including Iran, attended the 100-km rally, while hundreds of thousands more joined them on the way to Karbala and to the holy shrine of Imam Hossein (PBUH).

Observers believe the big rally is unique in terms of quality and also the number of its participants. It started from the holy shrine of Imam Ali (PBUH) - the first Shiite Imam - and ends up in the holy shrine of Imam Hossein (PBUH).

Large numbers of different student and popular groups are still joining the rally.

Late in October, Shiite pilgrims of Iraq and other countries, including Iran, flocked into Karbala, some 100 km South of Baghdad, and into Kadhmiyah in Northern Baghdad to commemorate Ashoura, which marks the martyrdom of Imam Hossein (PBUH), grandson of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and the third Shiite Imam.

Imam Hossein (PBUH) was martyred in the 680 A.D. battle fought on the plains outside Karbala, a city in modern Iraq that's home to the Imam's holy shrine.

In the battle, Imam Hossein (PBUH) was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid's armies. All of Imam Hossein's male family members, relatives, friends, soldiers who all together formed a 72-member army were beheaded in an unequal war with a 30,000-strong army of the enemy in the desert of Karbala.

The occasion is the source of an enduring moral lesson for the Shiites.

Imam Hossein's martyrdom - recounted through a rich body of prose, poetry and song - remains an inspirational example of sacrifice to Shiites, who make up a majority of the Muslim population in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Bahrain.

847/940